Election Results Announced

The results of Nottingham’s Students’ Union elections were announced on Friday 13th March, following a week of controversy among potential candidates. Rob Greenhalgh won the highly-contested battle for the presidency, which saw Henry ‘Blanch’ Blanchard pull out of the race with only one day remaining. Rob commented: “I would firstly like to thank all my supporters and the students that voted for me. It has been a turbulent 2 weeks of campaigning, consisting of minimal sleep but culminating in a successful elections night hosted by URN. I’m looking forward to building on the successes of past presidents and execs to ensure the SU moves in the right direction in the next academic year.”

A representation was filed against Blanch after his campaign team were seen removing another candidate’s banners. Blanch told Impact, “Although I cannot condone some of the actions that my representatives took, I take full responsibility for them,” insisting that he would be back next year with a “more successful and uncontroversial campaign.”

Other candidates also had complaints made against them during the fortnight of campaigning. Questions were raised over Rob Greenhalgh’s use of projected images in Ocean, and fellow presidential candidate Ellie Rosenfield was criticised for using her position as head of Cheerleading Society by using members to help garner votes in Isis.

Candidates across the board were subject to criticism as a result of limited daytime campaigning in the first week, preferring instead to concentrate their efforts at Oceana, Isis and Ocean nightclubs. In a blog as part of URN’s election coverage, Sammer Mohammed questioned the candidate’s campaign tactics, commenting that “the only voices they seem to be appealing to are those that attend the main club nights.”

The controversy did not affect voter turn-out, however, and hundreds of students tuned into URN’s seven-hour long coverage of Elections Night.

Democracy and Communications Officer, contested by six candidates and won by Dave Hind, was a particularly close race, and the position of AU officer, won by Alexandria Hingley, was decided on only a marginal number of votes. Stewart Bailey and Thomas Williams, elected as Finances and Environmental Officers respectively, won by a landslide, however.

The full list of elected officers for the Students’ Union Executive 2009/10 are listed below:

This election was infested with illegal campaign tactics. Save one or two, I feel ashamed to be represented by such a bunch of infantile, useless idiots. Once again, fake image branding prevailed over real groundbreaking policies.
I also find it worrying that the majority of men at this university seem unable to think with their brain, preferring to do so with their genitals.
As for the newly elected President… good luck everyone – we’ll need lots of it.

What a load of bull! I think the best man (or woman) won in almost all the positions. DemComms could have gone a number of ways, but Dave seems like he’ll be good aswel.

“preferring to do so with their genitals”, I’m guessing you or your friend lost to either Roxy, Claire Game or Hingers! Notice that DemComm was won by a man, as was President completely ruining your point!!

You do the voters a great disservice when you say that policies weren’t important in this election. If you can get hold of a manifesto booklet and look through it, you might notice that:

Rob Greenhalgh offered free buses to Lenton and a revision week in January. Sam Wilkinson promised an electronic feedback system for landlords and properties. Claire Game said she’d improve the sign-up system at Freshers Fayre. David Hind said he’d introduce an online ticket system.

These are all things that students wanted. Whether they’re achievable (or in Rob’s case, already in place) is another matter. Congratulations to all the winners.